March 20, 2013

A deal has been reached by all three major political parties in the United Kingdom to impose severe restrictions on the freedom of the press, apparently including the Internet. Details are still unclear,* but it seems to include an Orwellian ministry of truth that would have the power to order newspapers to issue “corrections”, letting the government replace what a paper reported with what the government says is true.

September 12, 2012

Yesterday, on the 11th anniversary of September 11th, “Egyptian protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy . . . , tore down the American flag and burned it” (Reuters) and “U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed when Libyan militants stormed the U.S. consulate” (ABC News). (Apparently three others were also killed.) The first, and perhaps the second, was apparently prompted by the making of an independent film about Mohammed. ABC:

The attack on the consulate in Benghazi came shortly after protesters in Cairo, Egypt, scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down the American flag in an angry demonstration against a movie about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, depicting the founder of Islam as a fraud and a womanizer.